Pokémon Dimension Pastel: Ink Chapter 1
by Ekulchu
Summary: First chapter of Pokémon Dimension Pastel, narrated from the point of Ink, a young aspiring trainer with his friend, Oscar, as they approach Versum Region’s Hostbush to get a starter.


**~Ink Chapter One: Arriving in Hostbush~**

The underground train started coming to a halt after several hours of riding. Ink felt it was about time he arrived in Hostbush town, a town where many new Pokémon trainers began. Today was an enrollment day at the local lab, that being the reason he travelled the entire region to this place. The overcrowded subway had many faces, of which Ink only recognised one which was to his left. It was his childhood friend, Oscar, who he had known as long as he could remember. They had both traveled together on purpose, even both a year later than usual. The vinyl seats had not been ready for the seven-hour ride to Hostbush, and were basically flat as the metal underneath them. Ink really couldn't complain, though, as some soon-to-be-trainers never got a seat in the first place. As the subway train pulled into the dimly-lit station, Ink couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated. Some of the other people were so much more prepared than he was. In the crowd, he saw a blond-haired girl loaded with luxury balls and hyper potions, a couple of people in full ace-trainer gear, and even a few people way older than him. The only person in the crowd who seemed genuinely friendly was a girl with a Plusle hat on, not too different from the Minun hat Ink was wearing himself.

As the train came to a complete stop, Oscar woke from his long slumber, yawned, and said, "Welp, only what, three hours yet?"

"Dude we're here," Ink notified.

"Right, and I'm the champion of the Versum region," Oscar stated sarcastically.

"No, you slept for like, six hours."

Oscar, still half-asleep, got up, aimlessly pushed through the crowd, randomly turned to the door, and tried to pry it open.

"See we're still going," Oscar said.

Ink assumed that somehow, in Oscar's tired mind, the fact the door wouldn't open was proof they weren't in Hostbush. A few seconds later, the tram doors opened and the mob of new trainers flooded out the doors, Oscar getting carried with them. Ink figured he should go find him before he ended up in a hidden grotto with a Hydreigon. He went out of the train car to see the various meatball shops signature to the Versum region, Pokémarts, and a few closed down facilities lining the walls of the subway station. Crowds completely covered the brown tile and the few benches surrounding the support beams of the station were overfilled. Multiple posters for movies, mainly from Unova, fashion items made in Kalos, Candies from Johto, Pokéballs from Kanto, ancient fossils from Hoenn, accessories from Sinnoh, and finally incense and lotions from Alola covered the walls. By the late-afternoon sunlit exit, Ink could barely spot Oscar, pushing and being pushed through the crowds.

"Oscar!" Ink shouted in the general direction of his friend.

It must have been drowned out by other sound, as the call seemed useless. Oscar had already headed up the black and white stairs to Hostbush town. Ink searched for windows in the sea of people as he pushed through the crowd up to Oscar. By the time he caught up, however, they had already gotten to the top of the staircase, outside the station. At entrance to the subway, there were yet more benches, also taken completely by incoming new trainers, and a cobblestone/stone brick path to flatten the nearby ground, giving a full view of Hostbush below. Despite the title of being a town, Hostbush was definitely a city, having a population of at least ten-thousand, by Ink's estimate. The three-story buildings' grey, red, blue, and green tiles spread out gorgeously under the sun. In addition, three stories were just tall enough to look large, but small enough to show off the distant ocean, fjords, autumn leaves, and numerous flying-types overhead. The gardens nearby even had a few early-autumn petals from various flowers and tree leaves flying by to add to the scenery.

"Wow," Oscar said to himself, not releasing Ink was directly behind him.

"Yeah," Ink responded, taking in the view.

Oscar turned around quickly, "Well, let's go grab some food!"

"So you've woken up?" Ink asked a bit teasingly.

Oscar, impatient as always, had already began to leave down the stone stairs. Ink hurriedly followed. Every step on the way down Ink got more excited to get his Pokémon. All the wild Fletchling, Sentrets, and more on the stairs could be his! Hostbush couldn't come close sooner. Catching up to Oscar was easy on the stairs.

"Which starter are you gonna choose tomorrow morning?" Ink asked as he approached Oscar.

Looking deep in thought, Oscar took a while to respond, "I think it should be energetic and ready to go to keep up with me, so maybe Torchic, Charmander, or Chimchar?"

"Ah, I always thought you would pick either Oshawott or Popplio," Ink half thought-aloud, half talking to Oscar.

"And… now I have no idea. Thanks," Oscar said still contemplating which starter he would choose.

The Versum region was different in many ways from other Pokémon regions. Aside from being much more mountainous and snowy, it also gave the option of choosing from twenty-one starters, from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola regions. This at first would seem like a good thing, but this actually made the choice harder for many trainers. Ink however, knew he would go with the Kalos Pokémon Chespin. It always seemed like a Pokémon he would like, just for the fact that it's future Spiky Shield move could counter a physical move.

By the time they had gotten to actual Hostbush, it appeared that a vast majority of the new trainers had moved to the shops, restaurants, and even inns inside Hostbush. Overhead of the busy streets banners hung on strings extended from the rooftops, welcoming all newcomers. Each banner had one of the three starter types, those types being grass, fire, and water, with a respective symbol. Most of the restaurants were indoors, but the few that either were on the street or had their windows open made a delightful smell. Ink could see Oscar's mouth watering, being ready to eat dinner at four in the afternoon. A few Drifloons flew above and through the many windows of the apartments of the houses Pokémon like Azurill, Pichu, and Cleffa could be seen watching the crowds. Ink had always liked a slight hustle and bustle of places like that.

"Should we find our inn?" Ink asked rather loudly, to overcome the clatter of footsteps and other conversations.

"Can we eat after?" Oscar asked in return.

"How'd I know you'd ask something like that?" Ink shot a question back again smuggly.

"So… yeah? We can eat after?"

"Yeah, but let's go get to our room first, mainly so nobody takes our reservation by chance or by purpose. What was the inn? Spearow's nest?

"I think"

The two navigated through the main roads of the city to the center of town, where the Hostbush lab could be seen, owned by Professor Cherry. The lab seemed to have overlook everything, in both stature and in technology. The actually lab's structure was impressive, Ink thought. It was mainly a white metal, with titanium-like supports, and multiple small, glass, dome roofs around the tower. Inside you could even see things like the more exotic Tropius. In the absolute center of town, there was a fountain, with a statue of a Cradily sprouting out water, and lining the town square were bike rental stands, a common commodity in warmer part of Versum cities and towns.

From the town center Ink guided Oscar to a less busy, but still relatively full, street. From here a sign depicting the brown bird Spearow could be seen.

"That must be it, huh?" Ink asked the pretty distracted Oscar, who had been mostly taking in the scenery up to that point.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, probably," Oscar said refocusing on Ink.

They pushed their way through the crowd to the door of Spearow's Nest. Most of the time, or at least from Ink's research, you could stay in a Pokémon Center overnight, but all available slots were taken up for the next two nights so Ink had to reserve a room in an inn. As they pushed the door open, the Spearow's Nest had a very white interior, as did most up-to-date Versumian interiors. The lobby was actually rather small and lead to a much larger restaurant. A friendly-looking clerk smiled at them welcomingly as they came farther in on the grey carpet.

"Welcome to the Spearow's Nest," the clerk called. "Do you have a reservation, because I'm afraid that all rooms are absolutely filled."

"Yeah, under Ink," Ink told her, looking around.

"Ink's a very interesting name," the clerk said, handing Ink the keys to both his and Oscar's room.

"Yeah, I guess. My parents told me they named me like that so I would never forget to write my own future, my own reality," Ink explained, but by the time he finished the clerk was already on to another guest.

Ink and Oscar set off for the staircase.

"You're lucky I got you a room," Ink teased Oscar.

"I would've remembered if you didn't," Oscar defended himself.

"Yeah, and I'm the champion of the Versum region," Ink mocked in semi-witty use of his friend's past words. "Anyway's I'm thinking hotel food tonight?"

"That's not funny," Oscar said with a straight face. "Don't joke about my food," after which he broke a smile.

"But no, really, where were you thinking?" Ink asked as they reached the third floor, where their room was.

"I don't know, a meatball place on the way here looked pretty good," Oscar answered as they turned on their rooms.

"Of course you'd say meatballs. Alright, I'll get into better clothes then we'll go," Ink said opening his room with a keycard.

Ink stepped into the his room. Although the Spearow's Nest advertised being an inn, it really was more of a hotel. The basically hotel room had a small T.V., fluffy white rug in the center, twin bed with white sheets, dark-brown painted wooden nightstand, and small, mostly, as per usual, white bathroom. After throwing off his shoes and hat, then putting down the limited luggage he had, Ink quickly changed into jeans and slipped a grey jacket over his Alolan Sandshrew tee. On his way out he grabbed the Minun hat he was wearing earlier and got outside. Predictably, Oscar hadn't changed clothing at all and had presumably just opened his room to dump his stuff off.

"Took ya long enough," Oscar poked.

"What, five minutes?" Ink asked with a smirk.

The two both went down the hall, stairs, then out the lobby. The trip to the meat restaurant, which was decently short, was even interesting in Hostbush. Seeing every building from a new angle made the city still seem completely unseen by Ink. The restaurant was only at the end of the road of which the Spearow's Nest was. The sign of the place was, disturbingly if you thought about it, a Honedge looking very satisfied. Oscar rushed forward and got through the glass door into the industrial-style interior with metal bar supported tables and purposefully crude light fixtures.

Once caught up Oscar in line, Oscar asked "What are you getting? I personally am gonna start with the sampler, then move to cinnamon buns for desert, and…"

Ink had to cut him off, "Well for one, I'm thinking Diglett-style sausage, and two, you're gonna puke."

"I know right? It's awesome!"

Ink sometimes wondered about Oscar, always rushing through things. He would even hurt himself a bit if it meant he got more stuff done at once, as long as that stuff wasn't productive.

Once they got to the front of the line, presumably the owner of the business was in an especially good mood, "What can I get'cha today, kiddos?"

"I'll take a sampler!" Oscar almost yelled eagerly.

"A plate of Diglett-style sausage please, with a side of haban berry sauce," Ink ordered.

"That'll be done real quick, although maybe not the best, cause we're a bit full y'see," the man whispered.

"Uh-huh," Ink responded wondering why he would say that to a customer.

A few minutes later, their order was done. Oscar more than willingly rushed to grab it. Ink felt the food actually looked pretty good, while Oscar was looking like a feral Litleo about to pounce of poor, unsuspecting, prey. By the time Ink had finished his food, Oscar, whose dish was about three times larger, was close to done.

"So, you liking Hostbush so far?" Ink asked in attempt to converse.

With his mouth full, Oscar said, "Yeah, food's good, so I'm good."

Ink looked around, mainly in avoidance of seeing Oscar's food being chewed, but also in attempt to see anyone else he recognised. In the crowd he could see the Plusle hat and Luxury Ball girls sitting next to each other. He wondered if they would end up rivals. He supposed even though they were a bit friendlier than usual, Ink and Oscar were rivals in a way. There really was no saying what was in store for the next day.

"Yo, Ink, you alive?" Oscar asked waving his hands in front of Ink's of sight.

"Yeah I'm fine," Ink responded calmly, "Just thinking about tomorrow."

"Yeah…" Oscar himself began to trail off. "Anyways we should probably get out of here. People are waiting for seats."

Ink got up with Oscar and walked out the restaurant, then to their rooms. The autumn sun had already began to fall at six, due to Versum's high latitude. Ink got into his room, and just dropped on his bed. It had been a long day of travel. He flipped on the T.V. with the remote and just listened to whatever was on. It was the news this time:

"Once again, a fight between Team Ink and Team Gate has broken out, this time in Trippel City. Trippel City is reportedly the most common place for feuds between the two. Now you may be asking: what are they fighting over? The answer is what to do with alternate dimensions believed to exist. Long story short, Team Ink wants to fuse them with ours and Team Gate wants to protect our own dimension. Tune in tomorrow for the daily rundown!"

And with that, the T.V. went to commercial. Ink turned it off, losing interest quickly. All he really wanted to do was to go to sleep so he could wake to get his first Pokémon. In order to make sure he woke up on time, he turned on an alarm on his Xtransceiver for seven in the morning. After turning on the T.V. once again, after deciding he wasn't tired, and watching Teachy TV for a couple hours to get some pointers on being a trainer, he turned off the lights. In the dark, Nincada-filled night, Ink could vaguely hear Oscar snoring through the thin hotel walls. Despite this, however, he got to sleep.

Ink awoke in the middle of the night to see two orange ovals looking over him. Then, with a long and loud "Marrrrrrrrr….." they disappeared with a flash of greenish light. He quickly wrote it off as a dream and fell back asleep.


End file.
